The F-type is the rally car we didn't know we needed
Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations division has been involved in some off-the-wall projects in its brief existence. From reviving ‘dead’ E-Types and D-Types and selling them as new models to building cars for Bond villains its remit is to basically have as much fun as possible with Jaguars and Land Rovers old and new.
F-Type projects have included a specially converted Coupe designed to carry the Sky Team’s time trial bikes on the Tour de France and , the latter a car you could actually buy if you were quick enough and had £135,000 to spare. Even by those standards this one is something a bit wild though. No, your eyes do not deceive you, this is an F-Type rally car, built to hit jumps and slide sideways over gravel on forest stages with a rooster tail of dust, mud and stones in its wake.
All very amusing. But what place does Jaguar really have in rallying? More than you might think, given that nearly 70 years ago the XK120 was doing the same on gravel-surfaced mountain passes in the gruelling Alpine Rally. It may not have looked like your typical rally car but the XK’s powerful engine, speed and reliability were proven to dramatic effect by enthusiastic privateer competitor Ian Appleyard and his wife Pat Lyons. The fact she was the daughter of Jaguar founder William Lyons won’t have done any harm but their exploits in NUB 120 have gone down in Jaguar legend, this cream-coloured XK120 now part of the Jaguar Heritage Trust’s fleet and only driven on very special occasions, up to and including this year’s Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.
Cars competing in 50s regularity events like the Alpine Rally were near-standard models but the rally F-Type has had a rather more dramatic makeover, with a full, FIA-approved rally refit that would have it a scrutineer’s signature away from being able to compete for real. Jaguar insists this won’t be happening but that hasn’t stopped it building the car to a standard where it could.
Based on a 2.0-litre F-Type Convertible, it keeps the standard 300PS (296bhp) turbocharged four-cylinder Ingenium engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox. Roll cage, competition seats and harnesses aside the interior is more or less as per the road car too. Which makes the experience of being driven sideways around a rally stage in Wales even more incongruous.
Even with the folding softop and its associated hardware removed the F-Type remains a heavy car and that, more than anything, probably explains the reluctance to test it in the heat of competition. But the long-travel, rally-spec suspension, gravel tyres, mudflaps, spotlights and hydraulic handbrake are all proper kit and the way it floats over the rough terrain are all utterly convincing. Jumps, yumps, mud, water splashes and all are devoured with ease, the choice of a rear-wheel-drive F-Type meaning a very traditional sideways stance with lots of spectacular wheel spin and flying gravel. The historical link with NUB 120 might well be there. But the sight of a Jaguar sportscar in this context still seems extraordinary.
Jaguar
F-Type
